SUBJECT: Transmittal of Files to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for Hearings

It has recently come to our attention that since the Bureaus have begun transmitting complaint files for hearing to the Administrative Judges (AJ's) in the Equal Employment Opportunity Commissions (EEOCs) field offices, the AJ's have been sending their findings and conclusions (decisions) and case files (in some instances) to the Bureaus. Decisions have been sent to both the headquarters and field offices of Department of the Interior (DOT) bureaus. In some cases, upon receipt of such, the bureaus have neither notified the Office for Equal Opportunity (OEO) of having received the AJs decisions, nor, transmitted the decisions and files to us for preparation of the Final Agency Decision (FAD). This has resulted in the Office for Equal Opportunity, oftentimes, not being aware that decisions had been issued by the AJ, and, therefore, not issuing the FAD in a timely manner. Several times recently, we have only become aware that an AJs decision had been issued upon receipt of notification of a complainants appeal from EEOC.

From a regulatory standpoint, the Director, OEO has 40 days after receipt of the AJs decision in OEO to issue a final decision. In cases where an appeal has been filed and we become aware that a decision was issued by the AJ without benefit of one being issued by the Director, OEO, we must prepare the FAD while also preparing the Departments comments on the appeal brief.

In order to avoid this happening in the future; effective upon receipt of this Directive, we are requesting that you place the following language in your letters to the EEOC transmitting case files for hearing:

Upon completion of the hearing, please transmit the Findings and Conclusions and the hearing transcript to:

Finally, because EEOC field offices do not always return the complaint files to DOI along with the decisions, please provide OEO with a copy of the Report of Investigation and complaint (correspondence) file concurrent with their being submitted to EEOC and the Solicitors office for hearing. This will avoid our having to delay submission of our comments on appeals to EEOC because we did not have the accompanying files to send. As we have indicated to you previously, the EEOC is no longer accepting written comments from OEO on appeals without the complaint files.

Please share the information in this Directive with equal opportunity officials in your field organizations who have responsibility for processing formal complaints of discrimination.